The 24 Hour Diet: Lose up to 4lbs in a Day. Joanna Hall
5 Your Good Morning Body Juice is best prepared fresh from scratch by peeling the vegetables and fruit when you need them. Cutting up the fruit and vegetables beforehand can reduce the vitamin content due to oxidation. However, if you are really short of time you can wash and cut them up, leaving them ready to use in the morning. Alternatively, you can make up a batch of juice and freeze it immediately in convenient individual serving sizes. This preserves the nutrient content and does little to reduce its powerful qualities.
6 The night before your 24 Hour Diet, put your blender and juicer out on the sideboard, all ready to go.
7 Taking your Vitality Soup to work in a flask can be convenient when doing your Three-day Cleanse.
8 Do your 24 Hour Diet with a friend and turn it into a spa day. Doing it together means you can share the preparation. It also makes it a Lot more fun, especially if you have a sleepover the night before and combine it with some pampering.
LYING TWIST
When: First thing in the morning with your Body Cleanse Elixir.
Why: Doing twists massages and helps to detoxify the internal organs, encouraging sound digestion and improving circulation.
What you do: Lie on your back with your arms stretched out to the sides in line with your shoulders. Bring your knees to your chest. Slowly let both knees fall to your left side; turn your neck and look to the right. Breathe for a few moments then return your knees to the centre and repeat on the opposite side.
COBRA
When: First thing in the morning and during the afternoon.
Why: Puts pressure on the abdomen, assisting elimination.
What you do: Lie on your stomach with legs outstretched. Place your palms on the floor near your ribcage. Inhale as you press your hands into the floor and lift your chest, keeping your hips anchored on the floor and pressing down with your pubic bone. Hold for three to five smooth breaths, then lower to the floor. Repeat three times.
CORPSE POSE
When: In the evening, before you go to bed.
Why: A lovely, relaxing body-awareness exercise. Releasing mental and emotional stress is of utmost importance when we cleanse.
What you do: Lie on your back, feet and arms extended and comfortably relaxed. Let your weight sink into the floor and relax everywhere. Keep bringing your attention back to the sensations of the body so you start to get glimpses of where you are holding tension. Try to release these areas of tension with deep breaths, allowing your body to fall into the mat.
You need to take your measurements three times: the night before you start; first thing on the morning of the diet; and first thing the morning after.
The measurements I suggest you take are:
• your weight
• your waist: the smallest part of your middle
• your belly button: the measurement around your middle level with your belly button. For some people this can be the same point as their waist measurement while others may have a Lower or higher belly button measurement.
• your hips: standing with your feet together, measure a level circumference at the top of your buttock cheeks
• your thighs: standing with your feet together, take a circumference measurement 20cm (8 inches) up from the top of your kneecap
Record these measurements in the following table.
All these items can be bought from an organic shop such as Fresh and Wild (www.freshandwild.com) or Planet Organic (www.planetorganic.com). Dry goods can be found in Holland and Barrett or any good high-street health-food shop.
FRUIT AND VEGETABLES
Ideally, try to buy organic or local produce – see the ‘Eat Ethically’ rule on page 130 for more information.
• 2 lemons or bottled lemon juice
• 2 apples
• 1 pear
• 1 banana
• 200ml carton of orange juice
• 1 avocado
• 1 small red onion
• Garlic clove or garlic purée
• 1 small red pepper
• Small cucumber
• 1 fresh chilli or Tabasco sauce
• 1 small bulb of fennel
• Fresh ginger
• 1 packet each of fresh basil, parsley and mint
NUTS, SEEDS, DRIED FRUIT
• Small packet of walnut halves or almonds
• Flaxseeds or linseeds (grind with a pestle and mortar or in a coffee grinder for speed)
• Small packet of dried figs
• Small packet of dried dates
• Small packet of semi-dried pitted prunes
• Small packet of pumpkin seeds
DRY GOODS (BOTTLES AND JARS)
• Jar of almond butter (white almond butter is my favourite)
• Small container of pure fruit spread (I use Sunwheel pear and prune)
• Small packet of organic 70 per cent cocoa powder (I use Green and Blacks)
• Small tin of lecithin granules (I use Optima brand)
• 1 large tin of chopped organic tomatoes
• Olive oil
• Sugar
• Ground black pepper
• Porridge oats
• Small packet of wheat germ
• Whole or powdered nutmeg
• 1 bottle of living green food (I used Pure Synergy brand – expensive but worth it!)
• Honey
• Neem tinture
• Detox tea
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